Broken Bone, Broken Spirit
by BattiestMiist
Summary: On a quick getaway from the Edge, things don't go quite as planned. Astrid takes a fall that breaks her leg and she is left to wonder what might happen if she can never walk again. Set during Race to the Edge.


_Set during Race to the Edge._

Hiccup wasn't much of a doctor – and he never intended on getting his medical experience on some rugged, hilly island to the north of Berk. Regardless of his expertise or intention, the fact remained that Astrid was lying stiff on the ground, filling the summer air with all forms of expletives and tightening her fists into tight knots from pain and anger.

"Astrid, just- just hold on. Let me…" Hiccup turned to Toothless, who looked on with wide eyes. The boy shrugged a bit and almost winced in a gesture that expressed his utter lack of any idea what to do. The dragon, for his part, wasn't much help in spite of Hiccup's hopes. It was a good thing Astrid's eyes were squeezed shut from pain, else she might have observed both of her companions in their dumbfounded state and become all the more furious – not at them particularly, but at whatever gods she was swearing towards in her verbal onslaught.

Hiccup thought for a moment, trying hard to process what had happened. It had been so quick – one moment he and Astrid were walking along (with her leading the way along the grassy hills) and the next she had plummeted out of sight with a yell, ending her fall with a crunch that made Hiccup tense up in empathy.

"Hiccup…" Astrid snarled through gritted teeth, "you need to get me back to Berk. Now."

"I- well…" Hiccup bent down to the ground where Astrid was lying and gently put a hand on her shattered right leg, trying to ascertain the damage. There was a notable bump on the lower half, and Astrid flinched when Hiccup gently touched it.

"Hiccup… just life me up so I can get on Toothless' back. He can take us back-" She stopped, hissing slightly when Hiccup started pulling up her pants leg to reveal the skin underneath. He looked at her apologetically and tried to be as gentle as possible.

"I think you- aren't you supposed to put a stint on it? Wouldn't moving hurt it worse?" Astrid hated knowing that he was right in his thinking. If she didn't know better, she could tell him to help her up and get her back to Berk where someone with a substantially better knowledge of first aid could help her. But she did know – she had been told before that moving a broken limb rarely ended well – and so she laid there and prayed that Hiccup could manage to not mess this up.

Hiccup took her looking up at the sky as permission to continue, and so he steeled his nerves and carried on. Hiccup didn't know what exactly to expect. He had heard stories before of bones sticking out through the skin – along with countless other forms of injury that can turn a weak stomach with ease. While those less then pleasant thoughts ran through his head, he managed to expose the skin without causing Astrid too much pain.

The flesh was a slightly sickening shade of bluish-purple, but at least there was no blood – and, even more fortunately, no fragment of bone jutting out of the skin. Even still, the sight of the bruised and distended skin sent his head spinning. Of course, his mind running through those old war stories didn't help matters much.

Hiccup thought he was going to vomit. The more he looked at the injury, the more certain he became. But he had a job to do – Astrid wasn't going to get back home without him – and so he swallowed down the urge to throw up and tried to focus on the task at hand.

"Bud, see if you can find a stick about this long," Hiccup said, demonstrating the length with his arms, "and bring it back here." Toothless nodded and took off, leaping out of the shallow cave they were in and up above to fulfill the request. In the meantime, Hiccup turned back to Astrid and observed her face still contorted a bit in pain.

"It uh, it hurts, huh?" Astrid glared at him after that. Hiccup figured she would have punched him in his shoulder if the situation permitted it. Stupid as his question was, Hiccup still preferred that to sitting there in silence.

"Don't mess this up, Hiccup… I'd like to be able to walk after this is over." Astrid kept looking up out of the cave and to the surface.

"Oh come on, it's not that bad. And what, am I that dumb all of the sudden?"

"No," she started, refocusing her gaze on him, "but I can tell when you're nervous. And you being nervous is making me pretty nervous."

"That's… understandable, I guess. Look, you'll be fine, I promise. It's not too hard to make a splint. And once that's done, I can get you back to Berk and have Gothi take a look." Astrid seemed to calm a bit at that.

Toothless came bounding in right then, a stick roughly the right length carried between his gums. Hiccup took the stick, wiping the saliva off for Astrid's sake, and grabbed a coil of rope out of the pack attached to Toothless' saddle.

"You keep rope in there? Why?"

"Well, just in case." Astrid stared at him, shaking her head at the silliness of the answer.

"Don't complain," he scolded her jokingly, "It came in handy, didn't it?"

It took some time for Hiccup to make any sort of progress on the splint. Neither he nor Astrid was quite positive on the whole process and Toothless wasn't exactly much of a medic either. Just as the whole thing seemed to be coming together, it started to rain – quite heavily at that. Toothless elected to stand over the duo, holding up his wings to deflect the water away. Both of them seemed grateful for the gesture.

Of course, the overcast sky didn't make properly assembling the splint any easier. Neither did Astrid's occasional flinches of pain. Hiccup knew she had a pain tolerance a few orders of magnitude higher than his, so he shuddered at the thought of what she must have been going through. In spite of the complications, Hiccup did what he set out to do and stepped back to appreciate his work.

Toothless sniffed at the makeshift splint curiously, concluding that Hiccup had done well. By that time, though, the rain and the winds had grown tremendously in their strength, with occasional flashes of lightning piercing the sky. Toothless' efforts to ward off the rain did little to help the water which was pooling around their feet. Fortunately, the small cave Astrid had landed in was connected to tunnels which wound deeper into the earth – which, in a better situation, Hiccup and Toothless might have been tempted to explore – that allowed the water to drain away.

That didn't stop it from soaking Astrid's clothes as she lay there, and Hiccup noticed her starting to shiver from the dampness and the cold evening air.

"Astrid?" Hiccup questioned.

"Yeah?"

"Do you want me to help you move out of the rain?" Toothless cawed quietly, and Hiccup knew that his wings were quite tired from serving as their umbrella for so long.

"I- I guess. Just… take it slow. It- it hurts. It's going to hurt a lot more when I start moving." Hiccup understood her reluctance. Fortunately, he didn't have to try and convince her that the move was necessary.

"Alright, ready?" Hiccup reached under her arms and readied to drag a few feet up to higher ground. Astrid nodded, signaling him to go on.

It wasn't exactly a pleasant moment for anyone involved. Astrid was pained by her broken leg, Hiccup was pained by her pain – he was always an empathetic person, for better or worse – and worried that he would pull a bit too hard or in the wrong direction and provoke unneeded agony on her part. Toothless was involved as well, worried over Astrid's state, and licked gently at her face to comfort her.

It didn't take long, however, for Hiccup to reach what he considered high-enough ground. All three of them breathed a sigh of relief then, but Astrid was still left wet and freezing, and Hiccup wasn't all very far behind.

"Toothless?" Hiccup called out both to gain the dragon's attention and see where he was in the utter darkness of the cavern. Toothless responded, letting Hiccup know that he was listening.

"We're both freezing, bud. And I can't see much of anything down here. Can you gather up some-"

Toothless cut Hiccup off with a quick sound and leapt up out of the cave.

"Wha- where did he go?" Astrid asked, beginning to shiver severely from the cold now.

"Don't worry. He knows what I was asking." Hiccup seemed sure of that. He reached out a short distance in the darkness to touch Astrid's shoulder for reassurance and found her skin as cold as ice. "He'll grab some sticks and get a fire going for us," Hiccup reassured her, "that should be enough to keep us warm."

"Hic-Hiccup," Astrid said through chattering teeth, "how is he going to light a fire with wet wood?" Hiccup was taken aback by that – this was why he relied on Astrid, for moments when he totally missed a quite major flaw in his plans.

"I- oh. That's- that might be a problem."

"Y-you think?" Hiccup was worried now; they didn't exactly think to bring along any supplies for keeping warm. Even if they had, they would be in Toothless' pack, which was currently not with them thanks to Hiccup's oversight.

Hiccup called out Toothless' name into the night, trying to get him to return rather than waste time on a plan doomed to fail. There was no response, however, and Hiccup could only assume that the storm above was loud enough to block out his calls.

And so the two of them sat close, mutually freezing and awaiting the dragon's return.

"Astrid?" Hiccup questioned.

"What?"

"You uh, you're being pretty quiet."

"Well, I'm f-freezing and in pain. Sorry if I'm n-not talkative enough for you."

"Well, I just-" Hiccup stopped, thinking carefully about his next words. "Even so, you still… are you alright?" Hiccup mentally kicked himself as soon as he said that, and hastily tacked on an explanation. "I mean, like, besides your leg and the whole… turning into an icicle thing." Astrid didn't respond for a good moment, and Hiccup thought maybe she had fallen asleep.

"No, Hiccup. I'm th-thinking…" Her voice trailed off on a high note, as though she had more to say but decided not to say it.

"What? What are you thinking?"

"Nothing. Just, let's w-worry about not freezing f-first, ok?"

"Well, there isn't- we can't do much besides wait. So… what were you going to say?" Astrid paused again, but this time Hiccup had his arm around her for comfort and warmth, and so he could tell she was most certainly awake. Just silent – worryingly so.

"Hiccup, when I-"

Toothless came bounding in right then, dropping his armful of random sticks and bits of wood onto the dry ground near where the two of them were lying down.

"Bud," Hiccup started, "change of plan. I need you to-"

Toothless, having bundled the firewood together, shot a relatively small blast of plasma into it and, much to Hiccup's surprise, ignited it – creating a controlled inferno which warmed the air and painted gentle yellow-red apparitions on the cold stone.

Hiccup scooted instinctively towards flames to take in their heat. He realized quickly, looking back at Astrid still shivering, that she didn't have that luxury. He reached back, taking hold of her arms, and managed to pull her closer to the fire with only a few small winces of pain crossing her face. Whatever trouble the short move did cause was more than worth it, however, to be closer to that fire.

When the both of them had warmed up a bit, Hiccup leaned over to inspect a piece of the wood that hadn't yet caught flame. He found it dry, which explained how they were able to enjoy the luxury of heat.

"Look at that, Astrid." Hiccup held up that dried shard of wood to demonstrate. "He must've found some that wasn't soaked and kept it dry on the way back. I guess he's smarter than I am, huh?" Hiccup scratched Toothless under his chin; Astrid stayed silent.

"Astrid?" There was still no sound but the constant falling of rain on the surface above and its gentle draining into the depths further down the cave system. Hiccup turned to her and saw her eyes focused on the flickering flames – her back against the stone wall of the cave and her splinted leg held out straight towards the fire.

Hiccup stood, balancing himself for a moment on his metal foot, and made his way to her side. She hardly noticed when he sat down next to her.

"Does it still hurt?" Hiccup asked, just barely loud enough to be heard over the rain. Astrid shrugged. There was another silence.

Then Hiccup tried again. "Do you… is there anything you wanna talk about, or?" Astrid shook her head.

He thought for a moment then, looking between the fire and the splint and the opening to the surface from which Astrid had fallen through earlier.

"This uh… wasn't much of a getaway, huh?" Still no response.

_What is up with her? She is never this quiet…_

"Look at the bright side," Hiccup said, deciding to try for humor, "at least you still _have_ your leg." That got her attention. She looked over at the metal foot. She stared at it as though seeing it for the first time.

"What if- what if it doesn't heal right, Hiccup? I've never broken anything before – except my pinkie, but that's different…"

"Wha- what do you mean? You'll be fine; you're Astrid! You're tougher than everyone else in the gang. Just, don't worry about that." Hiccup dismissed the whole notion on the spot.

"And… if it doesn't? What if I end up with a limp? What if I can't even walk anymore?"

"Then- I don't know?"

"What does that mean, Hiccup?" That last remark had some anger in it.

Hiccup looked over to that warm fire, blushing a bit. Toothless was up and alert by now, looking over to see what was going on.

"It means… that I never really thought about that, I guess." The silence took hold once more, and Hiccup wasn't sure if he preferred that or Astrid's angry tone from before.

"I sure have been thinking about it," she started. "Hiccup," she looked at his leg again, "you have Toothless. You're smart, too. You'll be chief before too long. What do I have besides… fighting, being strong?" Hiccup was taken aback by this.

"You have… what do you want me to say? You're _you._ Do you think that we'd all ditch you if you couldn't punch me in my shoulder or swing an axe around anymore?" Astrid looked at the ground and shook her head a bit, as if trying to shake off the entire conversation.

"We never should have come out here. And I should have been paying more attention. This is just… this is all so stupid."

"Well, to be fair, it could be a lot worse, you know. We have a fire. The rain sounds pretty nice. It's not exactly the break we were looking for, but hey." Astrid didn't seem to share his optimism. Even so, Hiccup was glad to have her talking again.

"You think the twins have burned down the Edge yet?" Hiccup chuckled a bit at her question.

"I told Fishlegs to keep them in check." Astrid rolled her eyes, smiling for the first time since the fall.

"Well, that _always _works, doesn't it?"

"I'm sure they'll be fine. What, we can't take a day off now? Go explore a bit and relax?" Astrid looked back to the fire, then to her leg again.

"We didn't get much exploring done, did we?" Hiccup shrugged at that.

"No… not really. But I think this cave is pretty relaxing, myself." Hiccup was sarcastic about that, sure, but the cave really wasn't all too bad and the rain pattering on the ground above was quite soothing, truth be told.

"Yeah," Astrid agreed, "I've been worse places."

Hiccup thought back to what she had said before.

"What did you mean when you said 'this is all so stupid'?" Astrid cocked her head a bit, trying to remember what Hiccup was talking about.

"I just meant that… Think about it. How stupid would it be for me to live through all our crazy adventures and then not look where I'm going and end up crippled?" She glanced at Hiccup's metal leg then, and decided to correct her wording. "I mean, you know, where I couldn't walk anymore." Hiccup must have noticed her brief glance, because he looked down at his artificial limb as well.

"Well, then I guess we'd find some way to move you around. Maybe a wheelbarrow?" Astrid punched him in his shoulder for that remark – but the smiled as well, and that's what Hiccup had hoped for. "It wouldn't be so bad, really. You'd have someone looking after you all the time, getting you food and drinks and such. Sounds pretty luxurious to me." Hiccup took the moment to lean back against the wall and place his hands behind his head, relaxing.

"Yeah, and I'd lay around being useless all the time. I don't even think I'd-"

She paused.

"What?" Hiccup questioned, sitting up straight again. "You don't think you'd… what?" Another silence that let the raindrops take the stage.

"I don't think that I would, well… why even live, at that point? I mean, what's the point in staying around, using up food and wasting people's time?"

"Stop that, Astrid."

"What? I'm serious."

"Don't be." Hiccup sounded sterner than Astrid had ever heard before.

"I don't want to be a burden, Hiccup. I don't want to be one of those old Vikings who come back from war and have to be cared for the rest of their lives. That's not what I-"

"What about Stormfly?" Hiccup looked her in the eyes at that, standing up and starting to pace around. "What about your parents? What about the gang? What about _me_, Astrid?" Astrid looked ashamed, an emotion she rarely wore.

"Well, it would- it would be better for you guys to not have to worry about me. I'd just be a burden."

"No, no you wouldn't. Astrid, there are a lot of people," Hiccup leaned towards her, his face totally serious, "and dragons too, that care about you. That's a pretty good reason to keep going no matter what happens."

There was a crash of thunder and a flash of lightning. Then another. The rain seemed to pick up strength, and Toothless made his way behind the pair, lying down so that he could keep watch over both of them through the night.

"Hiccup?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for taking care of me. You're a better doctor than I thought."

"I'd do it anytime, m'lady. I'll wake you up tomorrow, if the rain stops. We can get back to Berk and see Gothi. I'm sure you'll be fine."

"I know. I was just… being paranoid. That's all. I'll be back on my feet in a few weeks, I'm sure." Hiccup thought for a moment. There was another roll of thunder.

"No rush," he said. "You mean just as much to me – to all of us – whether you can walk or not. I mean that."

There was nothing more to be said after that. And the rain and the lightning and the thunder took the stage with their sounds, the fire sparking occasionally from its gentle flames. And the pain and the fear was gone – purged out by a greater purpose to it all: to live on, through both the anguish and the exaltation, for those to whom you matter most.

_If you enjoyed (or didn't) please leave a review! Feedback is always appreciated, positive or negative. Thanks for taking the time to read._


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